My Daily Routine, July 29
Ive settled into a daily routine here, so Ill take you through a typical day. I wake up about 7am every morning and pop out of bed to turn up the gas heater, turn on the coffeemaker, then climb back under the warm sheets till the coffee is ready. When it is, I get up and pull the curtains back to look out at the front lawn and river, and I bundle up and drink my coffee. The last 2 mornings, the bird baths out my window have been frozen solid. But a cold front just went through and it should be warmer by the weekend. In fact this week Ive seen clouds for the first time. No rain though. While having my coffee and looking at the view, I check email, since I usually have plenty of it first thing in the morning due to time difference between here and the US. (By the way, right now, SA is 6 hours ahead of Atlanta, 7 hours ahead of Alabama. We dont do daylight savings time here, so after you guys switch over in October, Georgia will be 7 hours behind, Alabama 8 hours). I usually eat a bowl of cereal and banana with my coffee and email, and these delicious pure fruit juices that come in boxes that they keep my refrigerator stocked with. This morning I had orange/peach. Yum! Sometimes I surf the web some, to read news from back home, ajc.com, my condos web site message board, al.com, and AuburnTigers.com. I usually just read the headlines of stories, but its keeping me pretty much in touch with whats happening back home. Im on a slow dial-up connection here, unfortunately. High-speed is available, and I will look at getting the business here connected on that when we get back from Botswana. For now though, its slow going.
I take my laptop downstairs usually about 8am and hook up next to Rosemary. Here is a picture I took of her at her workplace.
http://www.leebryan.us/sapics/july04/IMGP0764.jpg
Weve set up my workspace just to the right of her, so Im there to help her with computer things and other projects. We share printers and the phone. As you can tell from the photo, our workspace is smack-dab in the middle of their living room, so its never very peaceful, but thats OK. In the mornings we usually keep CNN on the TV, so we hear world news in the background while we do other things. Its usually just Larry King interviewing Martha Stewart or something. This week seems to be griping (yawn) coverage of the Democratic Convention. Sheesh, sorry Im missing out on that! Sarah-Pat has a nanny (not sure what they call her actually) who keeps tabs on her all day, and sometimes she makes us turn CNN off for a Barney tape. Rex has a small corner office just off to the right in this picture, so hes never far away either. We dont really sit there and work for too long ever, as we go over to the Pub, or out to the accounting shed (office) or out to look at the lawn (thats being re-sod next week) or off to some other crisis. Midmorning, Rosemary will usually heat us up a chocolate muffin and make tea. She knows well the importance of my regular feedings! Sometimes at noon we will order lunch from the restaurant, but more often, I go upstairs to my room and have a couple of peanut butter sandwiches (and more yummy juice!). The afternoons, I usually give computer lessons to a couple of the staff members, teaching them to do things on the computer to take pressure off of Rosemary, and to do while shes out of town, of course. John and Storm get home from school about 4pm usually, and we help Storm with her homework, or I go out and kick the rugby ball with John, and take Guinness for a play session down by the river. We re also still working through that time usually. We usually order dinner from the restaurant and watch some TV all of us together. They really dont watch much TV here (at least not as much as we Americans do), but theres usually one show each night the kids love to watch. Smallville, Everwood, Friends, The Simpsons, or a rugby match usually. Some nights Ill go sit in the Pub and eat dinner and read the paper there, visit with the staff some. I think they just like to hear me talk, doesnt matter what I say. Most of the staff speak Afrikaans as their first language, and amongst themselves, but their English is very good, though heavily accented. I have to listen very carefully and often get them to repeat themselves. I try to learn a word of Afrikaans here and there. Im not much of a bar person anyway, and everyone here smokes, it seems. But the fireplaces in the Pub are so warm and cozy, I do enjoy them. I think though, I will enjoy the atmosphere there more when it gets warm and all the doors and windows are left wide open at all times. I usually am in bed asleep by 10pm or so. I have a TV upstairs in my room but hardly ever even turn it on. Tonight Im watching a mens tennis match live from the US, Safin-Kiefer (its on one of their sports channels, and no commercials!), but I think this is the most Ive had my TV on at all.
I should explain that John and Storm go to schools in Johannesburg, about a 45 minute drive from here. Its close to an hour door to door for them from here to school. Rosemary and Rex take them and pick them up every day. Usually one of them takes them in the morning and the other picks them up in the afternoon. About 5 years ago, they rented a house in Johannesburg and tried out living there and having a short commute for school, then coming to Stonehaven on weekends. They all decided they much preferred living at Stonehaven, and together, they made the decision to go ahead and live here and do the long commute to school. The quality of life is so much better here. They do keep a small flat in Joburg that is walking distance from John and Storms school, so some days, Rex stays there and works all day from the flat. And if one of them gets out of school early, or the other has a sport after school or something, the other can walk to the flat and let themselves in. The system works well for all of them because they made up their minds to make it work.
Ive been trying to go for a run every other day or so, but its usually like every 3rd day. I try to go mid-afternoon when its warmest, as I dont like cold weather running. Rex is a big runner too, but has had a very bad cold since Ive been here, so not up to running. My first run that I went for, he drew me out a map and gave me directions for a nice 30 minute run, but I missed a turn and got off course. I always knew where I was though. And I have to concentrate to remember to run on the right side of the road (facing traffic), which is of course opposite of how I have to concentrate when I drive (which I havent been back doing yet since my first time). We are at 5,000 feet altitude here, so my breathing isnt great when I run, but hopefully will get better. I know there are tennis courts about 2 miles from here, and I hope to get out and hit some when Spring breaks. That will probably be after Botswana though. I miss playing tennis a lot, but it might be great for certain body parts (wrist, elbow, shoulders, etc.) that I am taking some extended time off.
One of the ladies goes and cleans my room in the afternoon. (I know this will come as a huge shock to some of my friends, but Im not very neat and tidy) They always keep me guessing where theyve put things. The other day I couldnt find my running shoes anywhere. I looked in cupboards, under furniture, drawers, everywhere. Finally I went downstairs and asked Rosemary for ideas. She had to ask around too, and it turns out they had taken them out to be washed. Well, I guess they were dirty, but theyre RUNNING SHOES. Anyway, I got them back in time, still dirty. The laundry is an on-going adventure for us all. They take my dirty clothes away (and sometimes my clean clothes) and I end up with some of Johns shirts or sox, and they all get some of my laundry mixed in with theirs. They say its a common occurrence anyway, even before I arrived.
The food here is delicious, probably too delicious! And being able to just order from the restaurant whenever and whatever I want is going to make me fat and lazy if I dont watch it (not to mention the wine. The ever-flowing wine!). They have a lot of beef dishes, so I usually have a steak or hamburger. Steak with a fried egg on top of it is pretty good. My arteries are probably choking, so once again, I gotta keep running! Probably my favorite item on the menu is the Curry of the Day. They do a beef, or lamb or chicken curry every day and it is some kinda good. This weekend will be the Afrikaans Potjie (poy-key) Festival, --- potjie seems to be a stew cooked slow and steady with everything in the kitchen thrown in it. The restaurant serves a potjie most days, and its pretty darned good too. At Shagpad last weekend, one of the dishes served was a Biltong pasta. Biltong is like beef jerky, but a lot better, and a very popular local item. But with their heavy accents, they were pronouncing it (and I was hearing it as) Bull Tongue. So yes, I thought I was eating tongue of bull. And in pasta, no less. But hey, they were all excited about it, so I figured I could at least give it a try. When we all finally figured out that what I thought they were saying wasnt what they were saying, they all had a good laugh. And I felt much better about eating the stuff! Ive also had some chicken here, but mostly beef. No fish yet either. The vegetables are pretty good, especially one called butternut that is kind of like squash.
They do love hearing me talk here, pretty much the way we love hearing South Africans talk back home. Of course, with movies and media, they hear American accents all the time. I find myself slipping in a SA term or pronunciation sometimes, but they really like it when I pour on Southern. So I just let go with a big ole this or Im fixin to do something, and they just hang on every word. During computer class today one of the staff members was on the phone with her daughter and I was talking in the background. She said her daughter wants to know Whos the cowboy?
When I really try to impersonate a South African accent, then they REALLY laugh at me!
Tomorrow night Rosemary and I are going to a Rotary Club meeting with Rex. Rex is president of the Rotary here, so very involved. At tomorrow nights dinner meeting, theyre having 2 exchange students speak. One is a SA girl who just spent time in Illinois, and the other a German boy who is here as an exchange student. I remember when Rosemary was an exchange student living with us, she went and spoke to my grandfathers Rotary Club in Brundidge, and was a big hit with them, from what I heard. So now Im kind of the exchange student and we are going to a Rotary meeting here. Ah, the circle of life.
